LC 

1752 






-°o^ 












^•, 




Department of Education 

FOR THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 



MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION 



UNITED STATES 

EDITED BY 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 

Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia University, New York 



EDUCATION OF WOMEN 



M. CAREY THOMAS 
President of Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Maiur, Pennsylvania 



This Monograph is contributed to the United States Educational Exhibit by the 
State of New York 



Department of Education 

FOR THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 

Director 

HOWARD J. ROGERS. Albany. N. Y. 



MONOGRAPHS 

ON 

EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES 

EDITED BY 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 

Preftssor ef Philosophy and Education in Columbia Univtrsity, Ntw York 



1 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION — 

Andrew Sloan Draper, President of the University 0/ Illinois, Cham- 
paign, Illinois 

2 KINDERGARTEN EDUCATION — Susan E. Blow, Cazenoma, New 

York 

3 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION — William T. Harris, United States 

Commissioner of Education, Washington, D. C. 

4 SECONDARY EDUCATION — Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Professor 

of Education in the University of California, Berkeley, California 

5 THE AMERICAN COLLEGE — Andrew Fleming West, Professorof 

Latin in Princeton University, Princeton, New fersey 

6 THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY— Edward Delavan Perry, /ay 

Professor of Greek in Columbia University, New York 

7 EDUCATION OF WOMEN — M. Carey Thomas, President of Bryn 

Mawr College, Bryn Maivr, Pennsylvania 

8 TRAINING OF TEACHERS — B. A. HiNSDALE, Professor of the Science 

and Art of Teaching in the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 
Michigan 

9 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE AND HYGIENE — GILBERT B. MORRISON, 

Principal of the Manual Training High School, Kansas City, Missouri 

10 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION— James Russell Parsons, Director of 

the College and High School Departments, University of the State of 
New York, Albany, New York 

11 SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION — 

T. C. Mendenhall, President of the Technological Institute, Worcts- 
ter, Massachusetts 
u AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION — Charles W. Dabney, President 
of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 

13 COMMERCIAL EDUCATION — Edmund J. James, Professor of Public 

Administration in the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 

14 ART AND INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION — ISAAC Edwards Clarke, 

Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. 

15 EDUCATION OF DEFECTIVES— Edward Ellis Allen, Principal of 

the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Over- 
brook, Pennsylvania 

16 SUMMER SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITY EXTENSION — HERBERT B. 

Adams, Professor of American and Institutional History in the fohns 
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 

17 SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES AND ASSOCIATIONS —James McKeen 

Cattell, Professor of Psychology in Columbia University, New York 

18 EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO — BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, Principal 

of the Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama 

19 EDUCATION OF THE INDIAN— William N. HailMANN, Superin- 

tendent of Schools, Dayton, Ohio 



Department of Education 

FOR THE 

United States Commission to the Paris Exposition of 1900 



MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION 



UNITKD STATKS 

edited by 

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 

Professor of Philosophy and Education in Columbia University, New York 



EDUCATION OF WOMEN 



M. CAREY THOMAS 

President of Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Maivr, Pennsylvania 



This Monograph is contributed to the United States Educational Exhibit by the 
State of New York 



,:' ^ ^- 






Copyright by 

J. B. LYON COMPANY 

1899 



EDUCATION OF WOMEN 



The higher education of women in America is taking place 
before our eyes on a vast scale and in a variety of ways. 
Every phase of this great experiment, if experiment we choose 
to call it, may be studied almost simultaneously. Women 
are taking advantage of all the various kinds of education 
offered them in great and ever-increasing numbers, and the 
period of thirty years, or thereabouts, that has elapsed since 
the beginning of the movement is sufficient to authorize us 
in drawing certain definite conclusions. The higher educa- 
tion of women naturally divides itself into college educa- 
tion designed primarily to train the mental faculties by 
means of a liberal education, and only secondarily, to equip the 
student for self-support, and professional or special educa- 
tion, directed primarily toward one of the money-making 
occupations. 

COLLEGE EDUCATION 

Women's college education is carried on in three different 
classes of institutions : coeducational colleges, independent 
women's colleges and women's colleges connected more or 
less closely with some one of the colleges for men. 

I. Coeducation — Coeducation is the prevailing system of [y 
college education in the United States for both men and 
women. In the western states and territories it is almost 
the only system of education, and it is rapidly becoming the 
prevailing system in the south, where the influence of the 
state universities is predominant. On the other hand, in the 
New England and middle states the great majority of the 
youth of both sexes are still receiving a separate college 
education. Coeducation was introduced into colleges in 
the west as a logical consequence of the so-called Ameri- 
can system of free elementary and secondary schools. 
During the great school revival of 1830-45 and the ensu- 
ing years until the outbreak of the civil war in 1861, free 



EDUCATION OF womei 



[322 



elementary and secondary schools were established through- 
out New England and the middle states and such western 
states as existed in those days. It was a fortunate circum- 
stance for girls that the country -"-as at that time sparsely 
settled ; in most neighborhoods it was so difficult to estab- 
lish and secure pupils for even one grammar school and one 
high school that girls were admitted from the first to both.* 
In the reorganization of lower and higher education that took 
place between 1865 and 1870 this same system, bringing with 
it the complete coeducation of the sexes, was introduced 
throughout the south both for whites and negroes, and was 
extended to every part of the west. In no part of the 
country, except in a few large eastern cities, was any dis- 
tinction made in elementary or secondary education between 
boys and girls.' The second fortunate and in like manner 
almost accidental factor in the education of American 

'That their admission was due in large part to the stress of circumstances is 
shown by the fact that in the very states in which these coeducational schools 
had been established there was manifested on other occasions a most illib- 
eral attitude toward girls' education. In the few cities of the Atlantic sea- 
board, where European conservatism was too strong to allow girls to be taught 
with boys in the new high schools, and where there were boys enough to fill the 
schools, girls had to wait much longer before their needs were provided 
for at all, and then most inadequately. In Boston, where the boys' and girls' 
high schools were separated, it was impossible until 1878 for a Boston girl to be 
prepared for college in a city high school, whereas, in the country towns of Massa- 
chusetts, where boys and girls were taught together in the high schools, the girl 
had had the same opportunities as the boy for twenty-five or thirty years. Indeed, 
it was not until 1852 that Boston girls obtained, and then only in connection with 
the normal school, a public high-school education of any kind whatsoever. In 
Philadelphia, where boys and girls are taught separately in the high schools, no 
girl could be prepared for college before 1893, neither Latin, French, nor German 
being taught in the girls' high school, whereas, for many years the boys' high school 
had prepared boys for college. In Baltimore the two girls' high schools are still, 
in 1900, unable to prepare girls for college, whereas the boys' high school has for 
years prepared boys to enter the Johns Hopkins university. The impossibility of 
preparing girls for college is only another way of stating that the instruction 
given is very imperfect. 

' The magnitude of this fact wi'll be apparent if we reflect that here for the first 
time the girls of a great nation, especially of the poorer classes, have from their 
earliest infancy to the age of eighteen or nineteen received the same education as 
the boys, and that the ladder leading, in Huxley's words, from the gutter to the 
university may be climbed as easily by a girl as by a boy. Although college edu- 
cation has affected as yet only a very few out of the great number of adult women 
in the United States, the free opportunities for secondary education have influenced 



323] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 5 

women was the occurrence of the civil war at the forma- 
tive period of the public sct\ools, with the result of placing 
the elementary and secondary education of both boys and 
girls overwhelmingly in the hands of women teachers. 
In no other country of the world has this ever been the 
case, and its influence upon women's education has 
been very great. The five years of the civil war, which 
drained all the northern and western states of men, 
caused women teachers to be employed in the public 
and private schools in large numbers, and in the first 
reports of the national bureau of education, organized 
after the war, we see that there were already fewer men 
than women teaching in the public schools of the United 
States. This result proved not to be temporary, but per- 
manent, and from 1865 until the present time not only the 
elementary teaching of boys and girls but the secondary 
education of both has been increasingly in the hands of 
women.' When most of the state universities of the west 
were founded they were in reality scarcely more than second- 
ary schools supplemented, in most cases, by large prepara- 
tory departments. Girls were already being educated with 
boys in all the high schools of the west, and not to admit 
them to the state universities would have been to break with 

the whole American people for nearly two-thirds of a century. The men of the 
poorer classes have had, as a rule, mothers as well educated as their fathers, 
indeed, better educated ; to this, more than to any other single cause, I think, 
may be attributed what by other nations is regarded as the phenomenal indus- 
trial progress of the United States. Our commercial rivals could probably take 
no one step that would so tend to place them on a level with American competi- 
tion as to open to girls without distinction all their elementary and secondary 
schools for boys. In 1892, girls formed 55.9 per cent, and in 1898, 56.5 per cent of 
all pupils in the public and private secondary schoools of the United States. 

*In 1870 women formed 59.0 per cent ; in 1880, 57,2 per cent ; in 1890, 65.5 per 
cent ; and in 1898, 67.8 per cent (in the North Atlantic Division 80.8 per cent) of 
all teachers in the public elementary and secondary schools of the United States 
(U. S. ed. rep. for 1897-98, pp. xiii, Ixxv). It has been frequently remarked that 
the feminine pronouns "she" and " her" are instinctively used in America in 
common speech with reference to a teacher. Moreover more women than men 
are teaching in the public and private secondary schools of the United States (in 
1898, women formed 53.8 per cent of the total number of secondary teachers, see 
U. S. ed. rep. for 1897-98, pp. 2053, 2069); whereas in all other countries the sec- 
ondary teaching of boys is wholly in the hands of men. 



6 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [324 

tradition. Women were also firmly established as teachers 
in the secondary schools and it was patent to all thoughtful 
men that they must be given opportunities for higher edu- 
cation, if only for the sake of the secondary education of 
the boys of the country/ The development of women's 
education in the east has followed a different course because 
there were in the east no state universities, and the private 
colleges for men had been founded before women were suf- 
fered to become either pupils or teachers in schools. The 
admission of women to the existing eastern colleges was, 
therefore, as much an innovation as it would have been in 
Europe. The coeducation of men and women in colleges, 
and at the same time the college education of women, began 
in Ohio, the earliest settled of the western states. In 1833 
Oberlin collegiate institute (not chartered as a college until 
1850) was opened, admitting from the first both men and 
women. Oberlin was at that time, and is now, hampered 
by maintaining a secondary school as large as its college 
department, but it was the first institution for collegiate 
instruction in the United States where large numbers of 
men and women were educated together, and the uniformly 
favorable testimony of its faculty had great influence on 
the side of coeducation. In 1853 Antioch college, also in 
Ohio, was opened, and admitted from the beginning men 
and women on equal terms. Its first president, Horace 
Mann, was one of the most brilliant and energetic educa- 
tional leaders in the United States, and his ardent advocacy 
of coeducation, based on his own practical experience, had 
great weight with the public.'' From this time on it became 
a custom, as state universities were opened in the far west, 
to admit women. Utah, opened in 1850, Iowa, opened in 
1856, Washington, opened in 1862, Kansas, opened in 1866, 

' In many cases in the west women made their way into the universities through 
the normal department of the university, being admitted to that first of all. The 
summer schools of western colleges, chiefly attended by teachers, among whom 
women were in the majority, served also as an entering wedge. (See Woman's 
work in America, Holt & Co., 1891, pp. 71-75.) 

* Antioch college opened, however, with only 8 students in its college depart- 
ment, all the rest, 142, belonging to its secondary school. 



325] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 7 

Minnesota, opened in 1868, and Nebraska, opened in 1871, 
were coeducational from the outset. Indiana, opened as 
early as 1820, admitted women in 1868. The state Univer- 
sity of Michigan was, at this time, the most important west- 
ern university, and the only western university well known 
in the east before the war. When, in 1870, it opened its 
doors to women, they were for the first time in America 
admitted to instruction of true college grade. The step 
was taken in response to public sentiment, as shown by 
two requests of the state legislature, against the will of 
the faculty as a whole. The example of the University 
of Michigan was quickly followed by all the other state uni- 
versities of the west. In the same year women were allowed 
to enter the state universities of Illinois and California ; in 
1873 the only remaining state university closed to women, 
that of Ohio, admitted them. Wisconsin which, since 1 860, 
had given some instruction to women, became in 1874 unre- 
servedly coeducational. All the state universities of the 
west, organized since 1871, have admitted women from the 
first. In the twenty states which, for convenience, I shall 
classify as western, there are now twenty state universities 
open to women, and, in four territories, Arizona, Oklahoma, 
Indian and New Mexico, the one university of each territory 
is open to women. Of the eleven state universities of the 
southern states the two most western admitted women first, 
as was to be expected. Missouri became coeducational as 
early as 1870, and the University of Texas was opened in 
1883 as a coeducational institution. Mississippi admitted 
women in 1882, Kentucky in 1889, Alabama in 1893, South 
Carolina in 1894, North Carolina in 1897, but only to 
women prepared to enter the junior and senior years. West 
Virginia in 1897.^ The state universities of Virginia, 
Georgia and Louisiana are still closed. The one state 
university existing outside the west and south, that of 
Maine, admitted women in 1872. 

* In every case I give the date when full coeducation was introduced ; West Vir- 
ginia, for example, admitted women to limited privileges in i88g. 



8 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [326 

The greater part of the college education of the United 
States, however, is carried on in private, not in state univer- 
sities. In 1897 over 70 per cent of all the college students in 
the United States were studying in private colleges, so that 
for women's higher education their admission to private 
colleges is really a matter of much greater importance. 
The part taken by Cornell university in New York state 
in opening private colleges to women was as significant 
as the part taken by Michigan in opening state universities. 
Cornell is in a restricted sense a state university, inas- 
much as part of its endowment, like that of the state 
universities, is derived from state and national funds. Nev- 
ertheless, there is little reason to suppose that Cornell 
would have admitted women had it not been for the 
generosity of Henry W. Sage, who offered to build and 
endow a large hall of residence for women at Cornell 
university. After carefully investigating coeducation in 
all the institutions where it then existed, and especi- 
ally in Michigan, the trustees of the university admitted 
women in 1872. The example set by Cornell was fol- 
lowed very slowly by the other private colleges of the New 
England and middle states. For the next twenty years the 
colleges in this section of the United States admitting 
women might be counted on the fingers of one hand. In 
Massachusetts Boston university opened its department of 
arts in 1873, and admitted women to it from the first ; 
but no college for men followed the example of Boston until 
1883, when the Massachusetts institute of technology, the 
most important technical and scientific school in the state, 
and one of the most important in the United States, admit- 
ted women. This school, like Cornell, is supported in part 
from state and national funds. Very recently, in 1892, Tufts 
college was opened to women. In the west and south the 
case is different, and the list of private colleges that one 
after another have become coeducational is too long to be 
inserted here. Among new coeducational foundations the 
most important are, on the Pacific coast, the Leland Stan- 



I 20 western states and 3 territories 



STATES 


Total 
no. cols 


Coed. 


Men only 




35 
14 
31 
II 
10 
9 
22 

I 
12 
19 

3 

4 

i 

I 


29 
9 

24 

10 
7 
7 

20 
3 
6 

17 

3 

3 

7 
8 
9 

2 
I 


3 R. C, I Luth., I P. E., Western reserve. 
2 R. C, I Luth., I Cong., Wabash college. 
5 R. C, I Ger. Ev., Illinois college. 




Illinois 










I R. C, I Luth. 


Iowa 


2 Luth. 


North Dakota 

South Dakota 

Nebraska 


1 R. C. (professional dept. open) 

2 R. C. 




Mon tana 










I R. C. 


Arizona 




Utah 




Nevada . . 










2 R. C. 


Oregon 






3R.C. 


Indian Territory 

Oklahoma 








217 


182 


22 R. C, 6 Luth., I Ger. Ev., i Dutch. Ref., i P. E., i Cong. 



II I /J. southern and 2 southern middle states 



STATES 


Total 
no. cols 


Coed. 


Men only 




2 

6 
10 

3 
IS 
9 

6 
13 
24 
9 
4 
9 

1 
26 


4 
3 
4 

3 

10 
7 
6 

5 
9 

7 

2 
3 

8 
21 


Delaware college. (The one coeducational college is for 

negroes.) 
4 R. C, St. John's, Maryland agric. college, Johns Hopkins. 

2 M. E. So., Univ. of Virginia. Hampden-Sidney, Wa.hing- 
ton and Lee, William and Mary. 

I R. C, 2 Presb., i Luth., i Bapt. 

1 A. M. E., College of Charleston. 

2 Bapt., I A. M. E., I M. E. So., Univ. of Georgia. 




District of Columbia. 
Virginia 


West Virginia 

North Carolina .. 

South Carolina 


Florida 


Kentucky 


I R. C, I Bapt., I Presb., Ogden college. 
I R. C, 2 Presb., i P. E. (Univ. of South.) 








1 Bapt.. I M. E. So. 

2 R. C. I M. E. So., I Cong., Louisiana State univ., Tulane. 

3 R. C, 1 Presb. 










3 R. C, I Bapt.. I Presb. 






182 


I2S 


21 R. C. 5 M. E. So., 6 Bapt., 7 Presb., i Luth., 2 A. M. E., i 
P. E., I Cong. 



Ill 6 New England and j northern middle states 



STATES 


Total 
no. cols 


Coed. 


Men only 




4 

2 
3 
9 
I 
3 
23 

4 
32 


2 

2 

I 
5 

17 


1 Bapt. (Colby, limited coed.), Bowdoin 

1 R. C.. I Cong. (Dartmouth) 
Norwich university 

2 R. C. 2 Cong. (Amherst), Harvard, Williams. CUrk 
Brown 

1 P. E. (Trinity). Yale 

8 R. C. 2 P. E. (Hobart). i Bapt. (Colgate). Polytechnic institute 
of Brooklyn. Hamilton, College of City of New York (boys' 
high school), Columbia, Union, Rochester, New York uni- 
versity 

2 R. C, I Dutch Ref. (Rutgers), Princeton 

4 R. C, I Luth.. I Moravian, i Friends (Haverford). i Dutch 
Ref. ^Franklin & Marshall). Pennsylvania military college. 
Philadelphia central high school (boys' high school). Lehigh 
university. University of Pennsylvania, 3 Presb. (Lafayette. 
Washington & Jefferson. Lincoln) 


New Hampshire 


Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 


New York 




Pennsylvania 




81 


29 


17 R. C, I Luth., 3 P. E., 3Cong.. 3 Presb.. 2 Bapt.. i Friends, 2 
Dutch Ref.. I Moravian (The Univ. of Penna. admits women 
to many departments, but not to full undergraduate work 
leading to the bachelor's degree) 



327] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 9 

ford junior university, opened in 1891, and, in the middle 
west, Chicago university, opened in 1892. To show the 
differing attitude toward coeducation of the different sec- 
tions of the United States, I have arranged the 480 coedu- 
cational colleges and separate colleges for men given in the 
U. S. education report for 1897-98 in a table on the opposite 
page. In matters like women's education, which are power- 
fully affected by prejudice and conservative opinion, we find 
not only a sharp cleavage in opinion and practice between 
the west and the east of the United States, but also dis- 
tinct phases of differing opinion, corresponding in the 
main to the old geographical division of the states into 
New England, middle, southern and western." 

In the western states it will be observed there are, excluding Roman 
Catholic colleges and seminaries, out of 195 colleges 182 coeducational 
and only 13 colleges for men only. All of these except 3 are denomina- 
tional ; 6 belong to the Lutheran, i to the Dutch Reformed, i to the Ger- 
man Evangelical, i to the Episcopalian, and i to the Congregationalist. 
The other 3 are, as we might expect, in the most eastern and the earliest 
settled of the western states; one in Ohio, Western reserve, which teaches 
women in a separate women's college; one in Indiana, Wabash college, 
one of the three most important colleges in Indiana; and one in Illinois, 
Illinois college. Roman Catholic institutions apart, in 14 states and all 
3 territories every college for men is open to women (the one university 
of the territory of New Mexico, not included in the U. S. education 
report, is open to women). In the southern states and southern middle 
states there are, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and seminaries, out 
of 161, 125 coeducational and only 36 colleges for men only. Among these 
36, however, are the most important educational institution in Maryland, 
the Johns Hopkins university; the most important in Georgia, the Uni- 

' In discussing coeducation I shall, therefore, disregard the divisions into north 
Atlantic, south Atlantic, north central, south central and western, employed by 
the U. S. census and the U. S. bureau of education. The New England, middle 
and southern states are all, of course, eastern, and, with the exception of Ver- 
mont, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri, are all seaboard states, 
Pennsylvania being counted as a seaboard state on account of its close river con- 
nection with the sea. It will be noted that the inland southern states are rather 
western than eastern in their characteristics. The northern middle states belong 
on the whole by their sympathies to New England, the southern middle to the 
southern states. Missouri, having been a slave state and settled largely by 
southerners, is still southern in feeling. The District of Columbia also may con- 
veniently be counted with the southern states. 



lO EDUCATION OF WOMEN [328 

versity of Georgia; in Louisiana the two most important, the Louisiana 
state university and Tulane university, and in Virginia the very import- 
ant University of Virginia.' Roman Catholic institutions apart, all 
the colleges in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida and West 
Virginia are coeducational. In New England and the northern mid- 
dle states out of 64 colleges, excluding Roman Catholic colleges and 
seminaries, only 29, or less than half, are coeducational. The col- 
leges for men only include (with the exception of Cornell) all the 
largest undergraduate colleges in this section — Harvard, Yale, Colum- 
bia, Princeton, Pennsylvania. Maine and Vermont are liberal to women, 
2 colleges (3 if we count the limited coeducational college of Colby) in 
Maine and 3 in Vermont being coeducational, but the total number of 
students in college in these states is very small (in Maine only 843 men 
and 189 women; in Vermont only 301 men and 99 women). The leading 
colleges of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania are closed, and in Massachusetts only 2 are open and 7 
closed.* 

Of the four hundred and eighty colleges for men enumer- 
ated by the commissioner of education 336, or 70 per cent 
(or, excluding Catholic colleges, 80 per cent), admit women. 
It would be misleading, however, to count among Ameri- 
can institutions for higher education, properly so-called, 
most of the coeducational colleges and separate colleges 
for men included in this list, and it would be equally 
misleading to compare the number of women studying in 
such colleges in the United States with the number of 
women engaged in higher studies in England, France and 
Germany.3 In order to obtain a better idea of opportunities 

* Two of the three next largest colleges in Virginia — Richmond and Roanoke — 
admit women, but the advance in women's education in that state has been very 
recent. Until the establishment of the State normal school in 1883 there was not 
a scientific laboratory in the state accessible to women; in 1893 the Randolph- 
Macon Woman's college opened with several laboratories, see Prof. Celestia 
Parrish, Proceedings 2d Capon Springs conference for education in the south, 
1899, p. 68. I am much indebted to the author of this paper for valuable data 
in regard to coeducation in the south. 

' The Massachusetts institute of technology is classified by the U. S. ed. reps, 
among technical schools. 

^The commissioner of education does not feel himself at liberty to discriminate 
among the colleges chartered by the different states, but it is well known that in 
most states the name of college, or preferably that of university, and the power 
to confer degrees are granted to any institution whatsoever without regard to 
endowment, scientific equipment, scholarly qualifications of the faculty or ade- 



329J EDUCATION OF WOMEN II 

for true collegiate work open to women at the present time 
in the United States I have selected from these four hun- 
dred and eighty colleges and from the numerous colleges for 
women classified elsewhere, a list of fifty-eight colleges 
properly so-called, employing for the purpose the four 
means of classification most likely to commend them- 
selves to the impartial student of such things,' Of these 

quate preparation of the students. The majority of the so-called colleges and 
universities of the south and west are really secondary schools. In most of them 
not only are the greater part of the students really pupils in the preparatory or 
high school department, but most of the students in the collegiate departments 
are at graduation barely able to enter upon the sophomore or second year work of 
the best eastern colleges. Throughout this monograph I have used the word col- 
lege in speaking of institutions for undergraduate education, except when quoting 
their official titles, and this whether the college in question is, or is not, included 
in a larger institution providing also three years of graduate instruction. The 
terms college and university are used in America without any definite understand- 
ing, even among colleges and universities themselves, as to how they shall be 
differentiated. Probably the most commonly accepted usage is to call an institu- 
tion a university if it has attached to it various departments, or schools, without 
regard to the standing of these departments, the preparation of the students enter- 
ing them, or the work done in them. In this sense all the state universities of the 
west are called universities because, although many of them are really high 
schools, they have attached to them schools of pharmacy, veterinary science, 
agriculture, and sometimes medicine or law. It is in this sense that many insti- 
tutions for negroes are called universities, because they include various depart- 
ments of industrial art as well as a high school department. Until very recently 
the requirements for admission to the departments of law, medicine, dentistry, 
etc., have been so low that it has been a positive disadvantage to have such schools 
attached to the college department, and when lately the graduates of Harvard col- 
lege decided not to allow the graduates of its affiliated schools to vote with them 
for representatives on the board of trustees, they claimed with justice that the 
illiberal education of the majority of these graduates would tend to lower the 
standard of Harvard college. The use of the word university should be strictly 
limited to institutions offering at least three years of graduate instruction in one 
or more schools. 

'In this list of fifty-eight colleges I have included : first, the twenty-four col- 
leges (indicated in the list by "a") whose graduates are admitted to the Associa- 
tion of collegiate alumnae; second, the twenty-three colleges (24 are included in 
the Federation, but Barnard has ceased to be a graduate school, see page 28) 
included in the Federation of graduate clubs (indicated by "b"); third, the fifty- 
two colleges (indicated by " c ") included in the 1899-1900 edition of Minerva, the 
well-known handbook of colleges and universities of the world published each 
year by Truebner & Co.; and fourth, the colleges which, according to the U. S. 
education report for 1897-98, have at least $500,000 worth of productive funds 
(indicated by " d "), and also three hundred or more students (indicated by " e "). 
In the case of state universities the money they receive annually from national and 
state appropriations may reasonably be regarded as a sort of supplementary 
endowment ; I have, therefore, included the state universities of Maine, Iowa and 



12 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [^ju 

fifty-eight colleges four are independent colleges for women 
and three women's colleges affiliated to colleges for men ; 
of the remaining 51, 30, or 58.8 per cent, are coedu- 
cational, and a nearer examination makes a much more 
favorable showing for coeducation. Of the 21 colleges 
closed to women in their undergraduate departments five 
have affiliated to them a women's college through which 
women obtain some share in the undergraduate instruc- 
tion given, the affiliated colleges in three cases being of 

West Virginia, whose productive funds do not amount to $500,000. This list of 
fifty-eight colleges, arranged according to the different sections of the country, 
and as far as possible in the order of the numbers in their undergraduate depart- 
ments, is as follows: New England and j norther7t middle states: Harvard (bcde), 
Yale (bcde), Cornell (abcde-coed.), Massachusetts institute of technology (acde- 
coed.), Smith (acde-woman's college), Princeton (bcde), Pennsylvania (bcde), Colum- 
bia (bcde). Brown (bcde), Wellesley (abce-woman's college), Vassar (acde-woman's 
college), Syracuse (acde-coed.), Dartmouth (cde), Boston (acde-coed.), Amherst 
(cde), Radcliffe (abce-affiliated), Williams (cde), Lehigh (cde), Maine (e-coed.), 
Wesleyan (acde-coed.), Vermont (c-coed.), Lafayette (c), Bryn Mawr (abed- 
woman's college), New York University (cd), Barnard (a-affiliated), Hamilton (c), 
Colgate (cd), Clark (bcd-no undergrad. department). Southern and 2 southern middle 
states: Missouri (bcde-coed.), Texas (cde-coed.), Columbian (bee-coed.). West Vir- 
ginia (e-coed.), Tulane (cd), Vanderbilt (bed-coed.), Virginia (c), Johns Hopkins 
(bed), Washington (St. Louis) (cd-eoed.), Georgetown (c-Catholic), Catholic uni- 
versity (cd-no undergrad. department). Western states: Minnesota (abede-coed.), 
Michigan (abcde-coed.), California (abcde-coed.), Wisconsin (abcde-coed.), Chicago 
(abede-coed.), Leland Stanford (abcde-coed.), Nebraska (ace-coed.), Ohio state 
university (de-coed.), Indiana (cde-coed.), Illinois (ee-coed.), Kansas (ace-coed.), 
Ohio Wesleyan (cde-coed.), Iowa (e-coed.). Northwestern (acde-coed.), Oberlin 
(acde-coed.), Cincinnati (cd-eoed.), Colorado (c-coed.). Western reserve (bed), 
College for Women of western reserve (a-affiliated). 

The only attempt hitherto made in America to discriminate between colleges 
of true college grade and others has been made by the Association of collegiate 
alumnae. This association was organized in 1882 for the purpose of uniting women 
graduates of the foremost coeducational colleges and colleges for women only into 
an association for work connected with the higher education of women. In the 
early years of the association there was appointed a committee on admissions, and 
the admission of each successive college in the association has been carefully con- 
sidered, both with regard to its entrance requirements, the training of its faculty 
and its curriculum. The Association of collegiate alumnse concerns itself, of 
course, only with colleges admitting women, but there is no doubt that the 
fifteen coeducational colleges and seven colleges for women only admitted to 
the association would, in the estimation of every one familiar with the subject, 
rank among the first fifty-eight colleges of the United States. 

The Federation of graduate clubs is an association of graduate students of 
those colleges whose graduate schools are important enough to entitle them to 
admission to the federation. The colleges in the Federation of graduate clubs 
are the only colleges in the United States that do true university work. 



GROWTH OF COEDUCATION 
Coeducatior\al 2>0-7 7o '870 For men only 69-3% 



Coeducatior>al 51-3% 



1880 



For men onty 48-7%. 



Coeducational 65 5 % 



1890 



For men only 345*/o 



Coeducational 



1898 



For r"in only 30'% 



I have prepared the diagram for 1870 from the U. S. ed. rep. for 1870, pp. 
506-516, and the diagram for 1897-98 from the U. S. ed. rep., pp. 1848-1867, and 
from the table, opposite page 9 of this monograph. The diagrams for 1880 and 
1890 are copied from the report for 1889-90, p. 764. For assistance in the prepara- 
tion of this and other diagrams, and in working out the percentages given here, 
and elsewhere, in this monograph I am much indebted to Dr Isabel Maddison. 

If Catholic colleges are excluded, as in the map opposite page 10, coeducational 
colleges formed, in 1898, 80 per cent, and colleges for men only 20 per cent of the 
whole number — a still more favorable result for coeducation. 



33 1] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 1 3 

enough importance to appear in the same Hst. Of these 
five, four (all but Harvard) admit women without restric- 
tion to their graduate instruction, and in addition Yale, 
the University of Pennsylvania and New York university 
make no distinction between men and women in graduate 
instruction. The Johns Hopkins university maintains a 
coeducational medical school. In this list then of fifty- 
eight, which includes all the most important colleges in the 
United States, there are, apart from the two Catholic col- 
leges, only ten (Dartmouth, Amherst, Williams, Clark, 
Princeton, Lehigh, Lafayette, Hamilton, Colgate, Virginia, 
all situated on the Atlantic seaboard) to which women are 
not admitted in some departments. Princeton is the only 
one of the large university foundations that excludes women 
from any share whatsoever in its advantages. The diagram 
on the opposite page shows the steady progress of coedu- 
cation from from 1870 to 1898.' 

All the arguments against the coeducation of the sexes 
in colleges have been met and answered by experience. It 
was feared at first that coeducation would lower the standard 
of scholarship on account of the supposed inferior quality of 
women's minds. The unanimous experience in coeducational 
colleges goes to show that the average standing of women is 
slightly higher than the average standing of men.'' Many 

' In only two instances, so far as I know, has coeducation once introduced been 
abandoned or restricted in any way. The private college of Adelbert of Western 
reserve, coeducational from 1873, opened a separate woman's college and excluded 
women in 1888. As the college department was very small and the state of Ohio 
in which the college was situated the most eastern in feeling of all western states, 
the change was seemingly to be attributed to a bid for students through under- 
graduate novelty. The Baptist college of Colby, in Maine, coeducational from 
1871, has taught women in separate classes in required work since 1890. Women 
are not allowed to compete with men for college prizes or for membership in the 
students' society, which elects its members on account of scholarship. Complete 
separation, which was at first planned, has proved impracticable and from the 
beginning of the sophomore year women and men re ite together in all elective 
work. 

' In an investigation made several years ago in the University of Wisconsin, 
which has been open to women since 1874, it was found that the women ranked in 
scholarship very considerably beyond the men. In the University of Michigan, 
where women have been educated with men since 1870, President Angell has 
repeatedly laid stress on their excellent scholarship. When in 1893-94 a committee 



14 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [332 

reasons for the greater success of women are given, such as 
absence of the distraction of athletic sports, greater dili- 
gence, higher moral standards, but the fact, however it may 
be explained, remains and is as gratifying as astonishing to 
those intersted in women's education. The question of health 
has also been finally disposed of ; thousands of women have 
been working side by side with men in coeducational institu- 
tions for the past twenty-five years and undergoing exactly 
the same tests without a larger percentage of withdrawals on 
account of illness than men. The question of conduct has 
also been disposed of. None of the difficulties have arisen 
that were feared from the association of men and women of 
marriageable age. Looking at coeducation as a whole it is 
most surprising that it has worked so well.' Perhaps the 
only objection that may be made from men's point of 
view to coeducation in America is that it has succeeded 
only too well and that the proportion of women students is 
increasing too steadily. Not only is the number of coedu- 
cational colleges increasing but the number of women rela- 
tively to the number of men is increasing also. In 1890 
there were studying in coeducational colleges 16,959 "^^^ 
and 7,929 women ; or women, in other words, formed 31.9 
per cent of the whole body of students. In 1898 there were 
28,823 men and 16,284 women studying in coeducational 
colleges, women forming 36. i per cent of the whole body 
of students. Between 1890 and 1898 men in coeduca- 
tional colleges have increased 70.0 per cent, but women 
in coeducational colleges have increased 105.4 per cent.^ 

of the faculty of the University of Virginia asked the officers of a large number of 
coeducational colleges especially in regard to this point the testimony received 
vvras very remarkable. In England it should be noted that the question of the 
success of women in collegiate studies has been put beyond a doubt by the pub- 
lished class lists of the competitive honor examinations of Oxford and Cambridge, 
In the discussions in regard to granting women degrees at Cambridge, it was 
freely admitted that women's minds were " splendid for examination purposes." 

' For a discussion of coeducation in schools and colleges in i8g2, see U. S. educa- 
tion report for 1891-92, pp. 783-862. 

^ U. S. education report 1889-90, pp. 761, 1582-1599, and 1897-98, p. 1823; account 
is taken of students of true college grade only in the college proper. Through- 
out this monograph I have corrected the figures of the U. S. ed, reps, which are 



333] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 1 5 

There is every reason to suppose that this increase of 
women will continue. Already girls form 56.5 per cent of 
the pupils in all secondary schools and 13 per cent of the girls 
enrolled and only 10 per cent of the boys enrolled graduate 
from the public high schools. It is sometimes said that 
men students, as a rule, dislike the presence of women, and 
in especial that they are unwilling to compete for prizes 
against women for the very reason that the average stand- 
ing of women is higher than their own. If there is any 
force in this statement, however, it would seem that men 
should increase less rapidly in coeducational colleges than 
in separate colleges for men. The reverse, however, is 
the case. During the eight years from 1890 to 1898 men 
have increased in coeducational colleges 70.0 per cent, but 
in separate colleges for men only 34.7 per cent.^ This is all 
the more remarkable, because in the separate colleges for 
men are included the large undergraduate departments of 
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and the University of 
Pennsylvania. It is women who have shown a preference 
for separate education ; women have increased more rapidly 
in separate colleges for women than in coeducational colleges. 
It will be observed, however, that the separate colleges for 
women, like the separate colleges for men included in my 
list of fifty-eight, are in the east ; it is in the east only that 
any preference for separate education is shown by either 
sex." 

affected by the erroneous assumption that the undergraduate departments of 
Brown, Yale, Rochester, New York Univ., Pennsylvania, Tulane and Western 
Reserve are coeducational. In the University of Chicago women formed, in 
1898, 54.5 per cent of all regular, and 70 per cent of all unclassified, students ; 
in Boston university in the regular college course there were, in 1899, 299 women 
as against 192 men. 

^ In 1889-90 there were 19,245 men studying in 146 colleges for men only ; in 
1898-99 there were 25,915 men studying in 143 colleges for men only, an increase 
of only 34.7 per cent. (In enumerating students I have regarded the limited 
coeducational college of Colby as coeducational.) Women, however, have 
increased in women's colleges 138.4 per cent. 

^ The objection of men students in the east to coeducation seems to be mainly 
in the apprehension that the presence of women may interfere with the free social 
life which has become so prominent a feature of private colleges for men in the 
east. These colleges are, for the most part, situated either in small country towns, 



l6 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [334 

Independent colleges for women — Since independent col- 
leges for women of the same grade as those for men are 
pecuHar to the United States, I shall treat them some- 
what more fully." The independent colleges here taken 
into account are the eleven colleges included in division 
A" of the U. S. education reports.^ The independent 

or in the suburbs of a city, in communities which have grown up about the college, 
and their students live largely in college dormitories; the conditions, therefore, 
are exceedingly unlike those prevailing in non-residential colleges and also unlike 
those prevailing in the world at large. These exceptional conditions are a source 
of pleasure and, in many respects, of advantage to the student. Undoubtedly 
there is in coeducational colleges less unrestraint ; young men undoubtedly care 
much for the impression that they make on young women of the same age, and 
there is more decorum and perhaps more diligence in classrooms where women 
are present. The objection to coeducation on the part of women students is, to 
some extent, the same ; separate colleges for women in like manner are, as a rule, 
academic communities living according to regulations and customs all their own ; 
women also feel themselves more unrestrained when they are studying in women's 
colleges. Then, too, coeducation in the east is still regarded as in some 
measure an experiment, to the success of which the conduct of each individ- 
ual woman may, or may not, contribute, and the knowledge of this tends to 
increase the self-consciousness of student life. 

* In the case of the colleges in groups I and II these statistics have been 
obtained through the kindness of the presidents of the colleges concerned; 
they are for the year 1900, except the numbers of instructors and students which 
are obtained from the catalogues for the year 1898-99; in enumerating the 
instructors, presidents, teachers of gymnastics, elocution, music and art have 
been omitted. Instructors away on leave of absence are not counted among 
instructors for the current year. 

' Women's colleges were first classified in division A and division B in 1887. 
In these reports there appeared sporadically in division A Ingham university, 
at Leroy, New York, and Rutgers female college in New York city. Nei- 
ther of these had any adequate endowment and neither ever obtained more 
than 35 students. Ingham university closed in 1S93, Rutgers female college in 
1895. 

^ The women's colleges, so called, included in division B of these reports, are in 
reality church and private enterprise schools, as a rule of the most superficial 
character, without endowment, or fixed curriculum, or any standard whatsoever of 
scholarship in teachers or pupils. What money there is to spend is for the most 
part used to provide teachers of music, drawing and other accomplishments, and 
the school instruction proper is shamefully inadequate. Few if any of these 
schools are able to teach the subjects required for entrance to a college properly 
so called; the really good girls' schools are, as a rule, excluded from this list by 
their honesty in not assuming the name of college. The U. S. education report 
for 1886-87 gives 152 of these colleges in division B, the report for 1897-98, 135. 
When it is said that separate colleges for women are decreasing, the statement is 
based on tins list of colleges in division B, which are not really colleges at all; 
and when it is said that women students are not increasing so rapidly in separate 
colleges for women as in coeducational colleges, it is the students in these mis- 



335] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 1 7 

colleges for women fall readily into three groups : I. The 
so-called "four great colleges for women," Vassar, Smith, 
Wellesley, Bryn Mawr. It will be seen by referring to the 
classification on page 12 that these four colleges are 
included among the fifty-eight leading colleges of the 
United States ; they are all included in the twenty-two col- 
leges admitted to the Association of collegiate alumnae ; 
two of them, Bryn Mawr and Wellesley, are included in the 
twenty-three colleges belonging to the Federation of gradu- 
ate clubs ; they are all included in the list of fifty-two lead- 
ing colleges of the United States given in the handbook of 
Minerva ; they are all, except Bryn Mawr, included in the 
list given by the U. S. education report for 1897-98^ of 
forty-six colleges in the United States having three hundred 
students and upward ; three of them, Bryn Mawr, Smith and 
Vassar, are included among the fifty-two colleges of the 
United States possessing invested funds of $500,000 and 
upward, and two of them, Vassar and Bryn Mawr, are 
included among the twenty-nine colleges of the United 
States possessing funds of $1,000,000 and upward; three 
of them. Smith, Wellesley and Vassar, rank among the 
twenty-three largest undergraduate colleges in the United 
States ; one of them. Smith, ranks as the tenth undergradu- 
ate college in the United States. 

called colleges who are referred to; for precisely the reverse is true of students 
in genuine colleges for women. It is happily true that since better college edu- 
cation has been obtainable, women have been refusing to attend the institutions 
included in class B. Between 1890 and 1898 women have increased only 4.9 per 
cent in the college departments of such institutions, whereas, in these same eight 
years, they have increased 138.4 per cent in women's colleges in division A. The 
value of statistics of women college students is often vitiated by the fact that 
women studying in institutions included in division B are counted among college 
students. Many of the colleges for men only and of the coeducational colleges 
included in the lists of the commissioner of education are very low in grade, but 
few of them are so scandalously inefficient as the majority of the girls' schools 
included in division B. I have, therefore, in my statistics taken no account 
whatever of women studying in institutions classified in division B. 

' See pp. 1821, 1822, 1888, 1889. Bryn Mawr had not 300 undergraduate students 
in 1897-98, but the next year, 1898-99, passed the limit. I have excluded Western 
reserve as it is not coeducational in its undergraduate department, and, in 1899, 
had only 182 men in its men's college and 183 women in its women's college. 



1 8 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [336 

Vassar college, Poughkeepsie, New York^ — Founder, Matthew 
Vassar ; intention, " to found and equip an institution which 
should accomplish for young women what our colleges are accom- 
plishing for young men ; " opened, 1865; preparatory department 
dropped, 1888 ; presidents, three (men) ; 45 instructors (16 Ph. D.s.) 
— 35 women, 2 without first degree ; 10 men ; 584 undergrad. s., 1 1 
grad. s., 24 special s. ; productive funds, $1,050,000; a main building 
with lecture rooms, library and accommodation for 34$ students, and 
two other residence halls accommodating 189 students; a science 
building; a lecture building; a museum with art, music and labora- 
tory rooms ; an observatory ; a gymnasium ; a plant house ; a presi- 
dent's house ; five professors' houses ; total cost of buildings, 
$1,044,365; vols, in library, 30,000 ; laboratory equipment, $33,382 ; 
acres, 200; music and art depts., but technical work in neither 
counted toward bachelor's degree ; tuition fee, $100 ; lowest charge, 
tuition, board and residence, including washing, $400. 

Wellesley college, Wellesley, Massachusetts — Founder, 
Henry F. Durant ; intention, " to found a college for the glory 
of God by the education and culture of women," opened 1875 ; 
preparatory department dropped, 1880; requirement from stu- 
dents of one hour daily domestic or clerical work dropped, 1896 ; 
presidents, five (all women); 69 instructors (13 Ph. D.s.) — 64 
women, 16, apart from laboratory assistants without first degree ; 
5 men; 611 undergrad. s., 25 grad. s., 21 special s. ; productive 

' To any one familiar with the circumstances it does not admit of discussion that 
in Vassar we have the legitimate parent of all future colleges for women which 
were to be founded in such rapid succession in the next period. It is true that in 
1855 the Presbyterian synod opened Elmira college in Elmira, New York, but it 
had practically no endowment and scarcely any college students. Even before 
1855 two famous female seminaries were founded which did much to create a 
standard for the education of girls. In 1821 Mrs. Emma Willard opened at Troy 
a seminary for girls, known as the Troy female seminary, still existing under the 
name of the Emma Willard school. In 1837 Mary Lyon opened in the beautiful 
valley of the Connecticut Mt. Holyoke seminary, where girls were educated so 
cheaply that it was almost a free school. This institution has had a great 
influence in the higher education of women; it became in 1893 Mt. Holyoke 
college. These seminaries are often claimed as the first women's colleges, but 
their curriculum of study proves conclusively that they had no thought whatever 
of giving women a collegiate education, whereas, the deliberations of the board 
of trustees whom Mr. Vassar associated with himself show clearly that it 
was expressly realized that here for the first time was being created a 
woman's college as distinct from the seminary or academy. In 1861 the move- 
ment for the higher education of women had scarcely begun. It was not until 
eight years later that the first of the women's colleges at Cambridge, England, 
opened. 



337] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 1 9 

funds, $7,000 ; ^ a main building with library lecture rooms and 
accommodation for 250 students; a chemical laboratory ; an obser- 
vatory ; a chapel ; an art building ; a music building ; 8 halls of 
residence, accommodating 348 students (new hall being built) ; 
total cost of buildings, $1,106,500; vols, in library, 49,970; 
laboratory equipment, $50,000; acres, 410; music and art depts., 
but technical work in neither counted toward bachelor's degree ; 
tuition fee, $175 ; lowest charge, tuition, board and residence (beds 
made, rooms dusted by students), $400. 

Smith college, Northampton, Massachusetts — Founder, 
Sophia Smith ; intention, to provide " means and facilities for 
education equal to those which are afforded in our colleges for 
young men;" opened, 1875; no preparatory department ever 
connected with the college ; president, one (man) ; 49 instructors (13 
Ph. D.s.) — 27 women, 9 without first degree ; 12 men ; 1,070 under- 
grad. s., 4 grad. s. ; since 1891 no special s. admitted; productive 
funds, $900,000; two lecture buildings; a lecture and gymnastic 
building ; a science building ; a chemical laboratory ; an observa- 
tory ; a gymnasium ; a plant house ; a music building ; an art 
building; 13 halls of residence accommodating 520 students; a 
president's house ; total cost of buildings $786,000 ; vols, in library, 
8,000 (70,000 vols, in library in Northampton also used by the stu- 
dents) ; laboratory equipment, $22,500; acres, 40; music and art 
depts., technical work in both, amounting to between one-sixth 
and one-seventh of the hours required for a degree, may be counted 
toward bachelor's degree ; tuition fee, $100; lowest charge, tuition, 
board and residence (beds made, rooms dusted by students), $400. 
Bryn Mawr college, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania — Founder, 
Joseph W. Taylor; intention, to provide "an institution of learn- 
ing for the advanced education of women which should afford them 
all the advantages of a college education which are so freely offered 
to young men;" opened, 1885; no preparatory department ever 
connected with the college ; presidents, two (one man, one woman) ; 
38 instructors (29 Ph. D.s. i D. Sc.) — 15 women, 23 men; 269 
undergrad. s., 61 grad. s., 9 hearers ; productive funds, $1,000,000 ; 
a lecture and library building ; a science building ; a gymnasium ; 
an infirmary ; five halls of residence and two cottages, accommodat- 
ions 323 students ; a president's house ; 6 professors' houses ; total 

' The founder of Wellesley expected to leave the college a large endowment, but 
his fortune was dissipated in unfortunate investments. The splendid grounds 
and many halls of residence of the college constitute a form of endowment, other- 
wise its lack of productive funds would have excluded it from class I. 



20 



EDUCATION OF WOMEN [338 



cost, $718,810; vols, in library, 32,000; laboratory equipment, 
$47,998; acres, 50; no music department; no technical instruction 
in art ; tuition fee, $125 ; lowest charge, tuition, board and resi- 
dence, $400. 

II. The women's colleges not included in the list of the 
fifty-eight most important colleges in the United States 
given on page 12, but of exceedingly good academic stand- 
ing as compared with the greater number of the separate 
colleges for men and the coeducational colleges included in 
the four hundred and eighty enumerated by the commis- 
sioner of education. 

Mt. Holyoke college, South Hadley, Massachusetts— Founder^ 

Mary Lyon ; seminary opened, 1837; chartered as seminary and 
college, 1888 ; seminary department dropped and true college organ- 
ized, 1893; presidents, two (both women); 37 instructors (7 Ph. 
D.s.) — all women; 5, apart from laboratory assistants, without first 
degree ; 426 undergrad. s., 3 grad. s., 9 special s., 3 music s.; pro- 
ductive funds, $300,000; a lecture building; a science building; 
a museum and art gallery ; a library ; a gymnasium ; a rink ; an 
observatory ; an infirmary ; a plant house ; 9 residence halls 
accommodating 478 students ; total cost of buildings, $625,000 ; 
vols, in library, 17,700; laboratory equipment, $33,000; acres, 160; 
music and art depts., technical work in both, amount limited by 
faculty, may be counted towards bachelor's degree ; tuition fee, 
$100 ; lowest charge, tuition, board and residence (beds made, 
rooms dusted, by students, and in addition one-half hour of 
domestic work required), $250, 

Woman's college of Baltimore, city of Baltimore, Maryland — 
Founded and controlled by Methodist Episcopal church ; opened, 
1888; preparatory department dropped, 1893; presidents, two 
(men); 21 instructors (10 Ph. D.s.) — 1 1 women, i without first degree; 
10 men, i without first degree; 259 undergrad. s. ; o grad. s. ; 15 
special s. ; productive funds, $334,994 ; a lecture building and three 
houses adapted for lecture purposes ; a gymnasium ; a biological 
laboratory ; 3 residence halls holding 230 ; total cost of buildings, 
$505,703 ; vols, in library, 7,800 ; laboratory equipment, $47,000 ; 
acres (in city), 7 ; music and art depts., but technical work in 
neither counted towards bachelor's degree; tuition fee, $125 ; low- 
est charge, tuition, board and residence (beds made, rooms dusted 
by students), $375. 



339] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 21 

Wells college, Aurora, New York — Founders, Henry Wells 
and Edwin B. Morgan; seminary opened, 1868; chartered as col- 
lege, 1870; preparatory dept. dropped, 1896; presidents, two 
(men); 13 instructors (4 Ph. D.s.) — 10 women, 3 without first 
degree ; 3 men ; 59 undergrad. s. ; o grad. s. ; 27 special s. ; 4 
music s. ; productive funds, $200,000 ; a main building with lec- 
ture rooms and accommodations for 100 students ; a science and 
music building; a president's house; total cost of buildings, 
$195,000; vols, in library, 7,300; laboratory equipment, $20,200; 
acres, 200 ; music and art depts., technical work in neither counted 
towards bachelor's degree; tuition fee, $100; lowest charge, tui- 
tion, board and residence (beds made by students), $400. 

III. Elmira college, the Randolph-Macon Woman's col- 
lege, Rockford college and Mills college are here relegated 
to a third group because of certain common characteristics. 
Their endowment is wholly inadequate, averaging consid- 
erably less than $50,000 apiece, reaching $100,000 only in 
the case of the Randolph-Macon Woman's college. In each 
of them a disproportionate number of students is studying 
in the music or art department ; special students form too 
large a proportion of the whole number of students ; the 
number of professors is too small to permit college classes to 
be conducted by specialists ; the college classes are too 
small ; true college training cannot be obtained in very small 
classes, and moreover, in view of the increasing number of 
women now going to college, when a college for women 
does not grow steadily it is reasonable to assume that there 
must be some good reason for its lack of growth. 

Elmira college, situated at Elmira, New York, has, apart from 
the president, 10 academic instructors (7 women, 2 without first 
degree ; 3 men) ; 5 teachers of music, 2 of art. There are studying 
in the college 70 regular college students, 17 specials and 61 special 
students in music. 

The Randolph-Macon Woman's college, situated at Lynch- 
burg, Virginia, has, apart from the president, 12 academic instruc- 
tors (2 Ph. D.s.) — 7 women, 2 without first degree; 5 men; 9 
instructors in music. Of the 226 students,"^ 55 are regular college 
students ; 44 registered for degree but spending one-fifth of time in 

'The numbers of students are for the year 1899-1900. 



22 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [34O 

music or preparatory work ; 16 special students; 6 students of art; 
49 preparatory students ; 46 students of music. 

Rockford college, Rockford, Illinois — Opened as seminary, 
1849; chartered as college, 1892; 13 academic instructors (2 Ph. 
D.s.) — all women, 3 without first degree; 4 teachers of music, i of 
art ; 35 college s. ; 7 special s. ; 70 s. in music only. 

Mills college, California — Opened as seminary, 1871 ; char- 
tered as college, 1885; 11 instructors (9 women, 3 without first 
degree; 2 men); 8 teachers of music; 22 college s, ; 135 pupils in 
preparatory department. 

In addition to the existing colleges belonging to these 
groups, a separate college for women. Trinity, meant to be 
of true college grade, will soon be opened in Washington 
under the control of the Roman Catholic church. 

It is often assumed by the adversaries of coeducation that 
independent colleges for women may be trusted to intro- 
duce a course of study modified especially for women, 
but the experience, both of coeducational colleges that 
have devised women's courses and of women's colleges, 
demonstrates conclusively that women themselves refuse to 
regard as satisfactory any modification whatsoever of the 
usual academic course. At the opening of Vassar college 
itself it is clear that the trustees and faculty made an honest 
attempt to discover and introduce certain modifications in 
the system of intellectual training then in operation in the 
best colleges for men. They planned from the start to 
give much more time to accomplishments — music, draw- 
ing and painting — than was given in men's colleges, and 
the example of Vassar in this respect was followed ten years 
later by Wellesley and Smith. These accomplishments have 
gradually fallen out of the course of women's colleges ; 
neither Vassar nor Wellesley allows time spent in them to 
be counted toward the bachelor's degree. Smith alone of 
the colleges of group I still permits nearly one-sixth of the 
whole college course to be devoted to them. Bryn Mawr, 
which opened ten years later than Smith or Wellesley, 
from the beginning found it possible to exclude them from 
its course. 



34 1] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 23 

In like manner Vassar, Smith and Wellesley in the begin- 
ning found it necessary to admit special students — students, 
that is to say, interested in special subjects, but without 
sufficient general training to be able to matriculate as col- 
lege students ; but their admission has been recognized as 
disadvantageous, and has gradually been restricted. In 
1870 special students, as distinguished from preparatory 
students, formed 19.6 per cent of the whole number of the 
students of Vassar; in 1899 they formed only 3.9 per cent, 
and only 3.3 per cent of the whole number of Wellesley 
students. Smith since 1891 has declined to admit them 
at all, and Bryn Mawr never admitted them.' 

Again, Wellesley and Vassar in the beginning organized 
preparatory departments with pupils living in the same halls 
as the college students and taught in great part by the same 
teachers. The presence of these pupils tended to turn the 
colleges into boarding schools, and the steady and rapid 
development of Vassar as a true college began only after the 
closing of its preparatory department in 1888 ; until this 
time the number of students in the college proper had been 
almost stationary ; Wellesley closed its preparatory depart- 
ment in 1880; Smith never organized one; Bryn Mawr 
never organized one ; Mt. Holyoke, the Woman's college 
of Baltimore, and Wells college have all closed their pre- 
paratory departments within the last seven years.'' 

' To the women's colleges of group III they are admitted still in large numbers, 
and they still form 35.1 per cent of all the undergraduate students in the affiliated 
college of Radcliffe, and 35.7 per cent of all the undergraduate students in the 
affiliated college of Barnard; in part, perhaps, because these colleges are largely 
dependent upon their tuition fees, and in part too, no doubt, because the 
presence of special students is less disadvantageous where there is no dormitory 
life. 

'Colleges for women draw their students from private schools to a much greater 
extent than do coeducational colleges; audit was the very great inefficiency of these 
schools that induced the earlier colleges for women to organize preparatory 
departments of their own. The entrance examinations of the women's colleges 
are the only influence for good that has ever been brought to bear upon the 
feeble teaching of these schools. In 1874, before the numbers of women wish- 
ing to prepare for college were great enough to influence the private schools, 
a plan for raising their standard was devised by the Woman's education 
association of Boston, at whose request Harvard university for 7 years con- 



24 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [342 

It seems to have been at first supposed that the same 
standards of scholarship need not be applied in the choice 
of instructors to teach women as in that of instructors to 
teach men, that women were fittest to teach women, and that 
the personal character and influence of the woman instructor 
in some mysterious way supplied the deficiency on her part 
of academic training. For a long time not even an ordinary 
undergraduate education was required of her, and there are 
still teaching in women's colleges too many women without 
even a first degree.' But it has been found on the whole 
that systematic mental training is best imparted by those 
who have themselves received it ; the numbers of well- 
trained women are increasing ; and the prejudice against 
the appointment of men where men are better qualified has 
almost disappeared.' 

ducted a series of examinations modeled on the Oxford and Cambridge higher 
local examinations which have been such an efficient agency in England. Com- 
mittees of women were organized in different cities, and an attempt was made 
to induce girls' schools to send up candidates for these examinations. In 7 years, 
however, only 106 candidates offered themselves for the preliminary examination, 
and only 36 received a complete certificate. In 1881 the entrance examinations 
of Harvard college were substituted for these special women's examinations, in 
the hope that the interest in reaching the standard set by Harvard for its entering 
class of men might add to the number of candidates; but even after this change 
was made comparatively few candidates took the examinations, and in i8g6 the 
effort was discontinued; the Harvard examinations have been used from that 
time onward simply as the ordinary entrance examinations of Radcliffe college. 
In Gre^t Britain the Cambridge higher local examinations are taken annually by 
about goo women. There was needed some such pressure as is brought to bear 
by pupils determined to go to college to induce private schools to add college 
graduates to their staff of teachers. The requirements for admission to Bryn 
Mawr college have to my personal knowledge been a most important factor in 
introducing college-bred women as teachers into all the more important private 
girls' schools of Philadelphia and in many private schools elsewhere; and every 
college for women drawing students from private schools has the same experi- 
ence. On the other hand, every relaxation in the requirements for admission, 
such as the practice of admitting on certificate adopted by Vassar, Wellesley 
and Smith, tends to deprive girls' schools of a much needed stimulus. Radclifle 
and Barnard, like Bryn Mawr, insist upon examination for admission and decline 
to accept certificates. 

' Until Bryn Mawr opened in 1885 with a large staff of young unmarried men, 
it had been regarded as almost out of the question to appoint unmarried men in 
a women's college; now they are teaching in all colleges for women. The same 
instructors pass from colleges for men to colleges for women and from colleges 
for women to colleges for men, employing in each the same methods of instruc- 



343] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 25 

It has been recognized that the work done in women's 
colleges is most satisfactory to women when it is the same 
in quality and quantity as the work done in colleges for men, 
and it has been recognized also that they need the same 
time for its performance. Domestic work, therefore, which 
by the founder of Wellesley was regarded as a necessary 
part of women's education, is at present, I believe, required 
nowhere except on the perfectly plain ground of economy. 
The hour of domestic service originally required of every 
student in Wellesley was abandoned in 1896; a half-hour is 
still required at Mt. Holyoke, but tuition, board and resi- 
dence are less expensive there. The time given to domestic 
work is obviously so much time taken from academic work. 

In the matter of discipline the tendency has been toward 
ever-diminishing supervision by the college authorities. 
Vassar and Wellesley began with the strict regulations of a 
boarding school ; it was regarded as impossible that young 
women living away from home should be in any measure 
trusted with the control of their own actions. Smith from 
the first allowed more liberty, in part because many of her 
students lived in boarding houses outside the college. In 
all three colleges the restrictions laid upon the students 
have been gradually lessened, and at Vassar there is at 
present a well-developed system of what is known as " lim- 
ited self-government," according to which many matters of 
discipline are intrusted to the whole body of students. 
Bryn Mawr was organized with a system of self-government 
by the students perhaps more far-reaching than was then in 
operation in any of the colleges for men ; the necessary 
rules are made by the Students' association, which includes 
all undergraduate and graduate students, and enforced by 
an executive committee of students who in the case of a 
serious offense may recommend the suspension or expulsion 

tion. Some years since one of the professors at Smith college received at the 
same time offers of a post at the Johns Hopkins, at Columbia, and at Bryn Mawr; 
and among the professors the most successful in their teaching at Princeton, Chi- 
cago and Columbia are men whose whole experience had been gained in teaching 
women at Bryn Mawr. 



26 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [344 

of the offender, and whose recommendation, when sustained 
by the whole association, is always accepted by the college. 
The perfect success of the system has shown that there is no 
risk in relying to the fullest extent on the discretion of a 
body of women students. 

Affiliated colleges ' — There are five* affiliated colleges in 
the United States — Radcliffe college, Barnard college, the 
Women's college of Brown university, the College for Women 
of Western reserve university, and the H. Sophie Newcomb 
memorial college for women of Tulane university.^ The 
affiliated college in America is modeled on the English 
women's colleges of Oxford and Cambridge, with such modi- 
fications as are made necessary by the wholly different 
constitution of English and American universities. These 
modifications, however, it must in fairness be explained, are 
so essential as to make of it a wholly different mstitution.'* 

' The following data have been furnished me by the courtesy of the presidents 
or deans of the colleges concerned, except the data of the H. Sophie Newcomb 
memorial college, for which I am indebted to Professor Evelyn Ordway. These 
data are for the year 1900; the numbers of instructors and students have been 
obtained from the catalogues for 1898-99. 

' In one instance only — that of Evelyn college in New Jersey — has an affiliated 
college, once established, been compelled to close its doors. Evelyn, however, 
partook of the nature of a private enterprise school, and was begun on an unaca- 
demic basis in 1887. A certain number of Princeton professors consented to 
serve on the board of trustees and give instruction there, but it was, in reality, a 
young ladies' finishing school with a few students (in 1891, 22; in 1894, 18; in 
1897, 14) pursuing collegiate courses. Music and accomplishments were made 
much of, and in 1897 the college came to a well-merited end. 

* Radcliffe and Barnard are the only two of the afifiliated colleges that appear in 
the U. S. education reports in division A of women's colleges. The students of 
the other three are reported under Brown, Western reserve and Tulane respec- 
tively, thus giving these colleges a false air of being coeducational in their under- 
graduate departments. The endowment and equipment of these three affiliated 
colleges, although entirely independent of the colleges to which they are affili- 
ated, are given nowhere separately. 

■•It is difficult for those interested in women's education in England to under- 
stand the existence in America of independent colleges for women, and if Ameri- 
can education were organized like English education they would, indeed, have no 
reason to exist. In an English university, consisting, as it does, of many separate 
colleges whose students live in their separate halls of residence, are taught 
by their own teachers, hear in common with the students of other colleges 
the lectures offered by the central university organization, and compete against 
each other in honor examinations conducted by a common board of univer- 
sity examiners, the colleges for women — at Cambridge, Girton and Newn- 



345] 



EDUCATION OF WOMEN 27 



Radcliffe college, Cambridge, Massachusetts ' — Affiliated to 
Harvard university, union dissoluble after due notice ; opened by 
the Society for the collegiate instruction of women in 1879; incor- 
porated as Radcliffe college with power to confer degrees in 
1894; board of trustees and financial management separate from 
Harvard ; B. A. and M. A. degrees conferred by Radcliffe ; Ph. D. 
degree as yet conferred neither by Radcliffe nor Harvard ; degrees, 
instructors, and academic board of control, subject to approval of 
Harvard ; no instructors not instructors at Harvard also ; under- 
graduate instruction at Harvard repeated at Radcliffe at discretion 

ham, and at Oxford, Somerville hall. Lady Margaret hall and St. Hugh's hall 
— are organized in precisely the same way as colleges for men. They may, 
or may not, be as well equipped as the best men's colleges, but the difference is a 
matter of endowment, not of university organization ; there are differences also 
between the various colleges for men. Examinations, again, play a far more 
important part in English than in American education. There are in Great Brit- 
ain only a few examining and degree-giving bodies, for whose examinations all 
the various colleges prepare their students. The degrees mean that certain 
examinations have been passed, and have a definite and universally acknowledged 
value. A degree given by an American college means that the person receiving 
it has lived for some time in a community of a certain kind, enjoying certain 
opportunities of which he has conscientiously availed himself. For this reason 
no one of the 491 colleges of the United States enumerated in the U. S. education 
report for 1897-98 bestows its degree in recognition of examinations passed in 
any other college. For this reason Harvard college has had logic on its side in 
declining to confer upon the students completing their undergraduate course in 
Radcliffe college the Harvard B. A. They have not lived in the same community, 
nor yet had all the opportunities of the Harvard student. The certificate received 
by the student of Girton or Newnham represents exactly the same thing as the 
Cambridge degree; the B. A. of Radcliffe does not represent the same thing as the 
Harvard B. A. What is represented by the degrees of different colleges in the 
United States may, or may not, be equal, but never is the same. Nevertheless 
Columbia, Brown, Tulane and Western reserve confer their degrees upon the 
women graduates of their affiliated colleges for women. 

' The first American affiliated college was the so-called Harvard annex, which 
was brought into existence by the devoted efforts of a small number of influential 
professors of Harvard college, who voluntarily formed themselves into a 
" Society for the collegiate instruction of women," and repeated each week to 
classes of women the lectures and class work they gave to men in Harvard 
college. The idea first occurred to Mr. Arthur Oilman in 1878. Girton college, 
Cambridge, England, after which the annex was modeled, had then been in suc- 
cessful operation for nine years. Mrs. Louis Agassiz, the widow of the famous 
naturalist, agreed to become the official head of the undertaking, and she asso- 
ciated with herself other influential Boston and Cambridge women. Mr. Arthur 
Oilman became the secretary of the society. The president of Harvard college 
declared that, so far as the university was concerned, the professors were free 
to teach women in their leisure hours if they chose. The annex was opened 
for students in 1879 i^ ^ rented house near the Harvard campus with 25 
students. 



28 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [346 

of instructors; since 1893 women admitted to graduate and semi- 
graduate courses given in Harvard, at discretion of instructor, 
subject to approval of the Harvard faculty; in 1899, 64 such 
courses open to Radcliffe students ; 238 undergrad. s. ; 54 grad. s. ; 
129 special s. ; productive funds about $430,000; a lecture and 
library building; a gymnasium ; 4 temporary buildings used for 
lectures and laboratories ; a students' club house ; no residence hall, 
but one about to be built; total cost of buildings about $110,000; 
vols, in library, 14,138; access to Harvard library and collections; 
scientific laboratories of Harvard not available ; cost of laboratory 
equipment not ascertainable, inadequate ; acres (in city) about 3 ; 
tuition fee, $200. 

Barnard college, New York city — Afifiliated to Columbia uni- 
versity, union dissoluble by either party after year's notice ; 
opened in 1889; status very much that of Radcliffe until Janu- 
ary, 1900, when women graduates were admitted without restric- 
tion to the graduate school of Columbia, registering in Columbia, 
not as heretofore in Barnard, and Barnard was incorporated as an 
undergraduate women's college of the university, its dean voting 
in the university council, and the president of Columbia becoming 
its president and a member of its board of trustees ; Barnard's 
faculty consists of the president of the university, the dean of Bar- 
nard, and instructors, either men or women, nominated by the dean, 
approved by Barnard trustees and president of Columbia and 
appointed by Columbia; courses for A. B. degree and all examina- 
tions determined and conducted by Barnard faculty, subject to 
provisions of university council for maintaining integrity of 
degree; all degrees conferred by Columbia; after July i, 1904, no 
undergraduate courses in Columbia, except in the Teachers' col- 
lege, will be open to Barnard seniors as heretofore, complete 
undergraduate work will be given separately at Barnard, not neces- 
sarily by same instructors ; 131 undergrad. s. ; 76 grad. s. ; 73 special 
s. ; productive funds, $150,000; one large building containing lec- 
ture rooms, laboratories and accommodation for 65 students, cost, 
$525, )00; vols, in reading room, 1,000; access to Columbia, 
libra ./ ; scientific laboratories of Columbia not available; cost 
of la -oratory equipment $9,250; land (in city), 200x160 feet; tui- 
tion fee, $150. 

W )men's college of Brown university, Providence, Rhode 
Island — Affiliated to Brown university; university degrees and 
examinations opened to women, and their undergraduate instruc- 
tion informally begun in 1892 ; women's college established by 



347] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 29 

Brown university as a regular department of the university in 1897 
under control of the university trustees ; advisory council of five 
women appointed by trustees to advise with president of university 
and dean of women's college ; funds of the women's college held 
and administered separately by trustees ; all degrees conferred by 
Brown ; women and men examined together ; required courses 
given in Brown repeated to women by same instructors ; all instruc- 
tion given by Brown instructors ; all graduate work in Brown 
open to graduate women without restriction since 1892 ; women 
recite with men in many of the smaller elective undergradu- 
ate courses; 140 undergrad. s. ; 38 grad. s. ; 25 special s. ; a lec- 
ture hall costing $38,000 ; no residence hall ; access to Brown 
library ; scientific laboratories of Brown not available ; very 
inadequate laboratory equipment ; no productive funds ; tuition 
fee, $105. 

College for women of Western reserve university, Cleveland, 
Ohio — Affiliated to Western reserve university ; established by 
Western reserve in 1888; degrees conferred by Western reserve; 
graduate department of Western reserve open to graduate women 
without restriction ; separate financial management ; separate 
faculty 21 (9 Ph. D.s.) — 14 men, 7 women ; 165 undergrad, s. ; 18 
special s. ; productive funds, about $250,000; a lecture hall, a 
residence hall accommodating 40 students; total cost of buildings, 
including land, about $200,000; 3 laboratories of men's college 
available at certain times ; access to Western reserve library ; 
tuition, $85 ; lowest charge, board, room rent and tuition (beds 
made by students), $335. 

H. Sophie Newcomb memorial college for women, New 
Orleans, Louisiana — Affiliated with Tulane university, but situ- 
ated in another part of the city ; founder, Mrs. Josephine Louise 
Newcomb; opened 1886; under control of board of trustees of 
Tulane ; graduate department of Tulane university open to gradu- 
ate women without restriction since 1890; separate financial man- 
agement ; separate president and faculty ; 8 instructors (i Ph. D.) — 
5 women, 2 without first degrees ; 3 men, i without first degree ; 
51 undergrad. s. ; 34 special s. (10 in gymnastics) ; 54 s. of art ; 80 
pupils in preparatory dept. ; art dept. ; productive funds, $400,000 ; 
a lecture building, a chapel, an art building, a pottery building, two 
residence halls accommodating 75 students, a high school building; 
total cost of buildings about $225,000 ; vols, in library about 6,000 ; 
tuition, $100; lowest charge, board, room rent (two in one room, 
beds made by students) and tuition, $280. 



30 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [348 

In the smaller group, which includes the College for women 
of Western reserve university and the H.Sophie Newcomb 
memorial college, the affiliated college tends to become an 
entirely separate institution ; in its instructors and instruc- 
tion it differs widely from the institution to which it is affili- 
ated ; it is, in fact, a different college called into existence by 
the same authorities. In the larger group, which includes the 
Women's college of Brown, Barnard and Radcliffe, the affili- 
ated college tends to blend itself with the institution to which 
it is affiliated in a new coeducational institution. The ideal 
in view is a complete identity of instructors and instruction 
and the law of economy of force forbids attaining this ideal 
by the duplication of the whole instruction given. It is less 
wasteful to double the number of hearers in any lecture 
room than to repeat the lecture. It is in the Women's col- 
lege of Brown that we find the closest affiliation and, 
accordingly, the nearest approach to coeducation. The 
corporation of Brown furnished the land on which Pem- 
broke hall, the academic building of the Women's college, 
was erected, and accepted the gift of the building when 
it was completed ; Brown has from first to last openly 
assumed responsibility for its affiliated college in fact as 
well as name. In the graduate department of Brown there 
is, as has been said, unrestricted coeducation ; and in many 
of the smaller undergraduate elective courses women are 
reciting with men. In the graduate department of Columbia 
there is now unrestricted coeducation. It is in the case of 
Radcliffe that there is least approach to coeducation. What 
has made possible the policy pursued at Radcliffe has been 
the self-sacrificing zeal of many eminent Harvard professors, 
willing at any cost of inconvenience to give to women what 
could seemingly on no other terms be given ; but the sacri- 
fice is too great, and in the modern world too unnecessary ; 
it is at present almost everywhere possible for the professor 
interested in educating women to lighten his own labors by 
admitting them to the same classes with men. Only the 
affiliated colleges of the second group present in their inter- 



349] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 3 1 

nal organization a type essentially different from that of the 
independent college — a type intermediate between the inde- 
pendent and the coeducational. 

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION 

Graduate instruction in the faculty of philosophy — True uni- 
versity instruction begins after the completion of the college 
course, and very little such instruction is given by any 
American university' except in the so-called graduate schools 
belonging to the twenty-three colleges in the United States 
included in the Federation of graduate clubs.^ In the follow- 
ing 1 6 of these 23 graduate schools women are admitted 
without restriction and compete with men for many of the 
scholarships and honors : Yale, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, 
New York university, Pennsylvania, Columbian, Vanderbilt, 
Missouri, Western reserve, Chicago, Michigan, Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, California, Leland Stanford Junior; BrynMawr 
and Wellesley admit women only ; Harvard admits them 
to certain courses through the mediation of Radcliffe. 
There remain, apart from the Catholic university, only 3 
graduate schools excluding women : Clark, Princeton and 
the Johns Hopkins university; and in the Johns Hopkins 
they are admitted to at least one university department — 
that of the medical school.^ 

' The medical school of the Johns Hopkins university is a true university school, 
admitting only holders of the bachelor's degree; the law school of Harvard uni- 
versity is practically a university school, although seniors in Harvard college are 
received as students. 

''Out of the 58 most important American colleges enumerated on page 12 only 
23, it virill be remembered, appear in the lists of the Federation of graduate clubs. 
Unfortunately it must not be inferred that all these 23 colleges are doing true 
professional work and offering graduate students a three years' course leading to 
the degree of Ph. D. In some of them there are provided only courses leading to 
the degree of A. M., which, like the degree of A. B., indicating general culture. 
The affiliated college of Radcliffe appears in the list of graduate clubs, although 
it can scarcely be said to exist independently as a separate graduate school, being 
virtually the portal by which women are admitted to a limited amount of graduate 
work at Harvard. In 1899-igoo only 12 graduate lecture courses and 3 research 
courses were repeated at Radcliffe. 

^The graduate courses of Clark (which has no undergraduate department) are 
few in number and attended by only 48 men ; the exclusion of women is, there- 
fore, very surprising especially as the principal subjects of instruction, pedagogy, 



32 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [35O 

In 1898-99 there were studying in these 23 gradu- 
ate schools 1,021 women, forming 26.8 per cent of the 
whole number of graduate students.' In 1889-90 the U. 
S. education report estimates that there were 271 women 
graduate students out of a total of 2,041 graduate stu- 
dents, or women formed 13.27 per cent of all graduate 
students ; in 1897-98 the report for that year estimates that 
there were 1,398 women out of a total of 5,816 graduate 
students, or women formed 24.04 per cent of all students — 
a remarkable increase as compared to the increase of men 
graduate students in 8 years. 

Graduate fellowships and scholarships— In 1899 there were 
open to women 319 scholarships varying in value from $100 
to $400 (50 of these exclusively for women) and 2 foreign 
scholarships (i exclusively for women) ; 81 residence fellow- 
ships of the value of $400 or over (18 of these exclusively 
for women) ; 24 foreign fellowships of the value of $500 
and upwards (12 of these exclusively for women). ^ 

experimental psychology and the like, are of peculiar interest to women. The 
exclusion of women from all but the medical department of the Johns Hopkins 
university is really of serious import, because the Johns Hopkins university, judged 
not by numbers but by scholarly research and publication, the number of Ph. D. 
degrees conferred, and the important college and university positions filled by its 
graduates, has long been, and perhaps is still, the most important graduate school 
in the United States. Its attitude toward women is to be accounted for in part 
by its location, and in part by the fact that its management is in the hands of a 
self-perpetuating board of twelve trustees appointed originally by the founder, 
and without exception Baltimoreans, so that no pressure can be brought to bear 
upon the corporation from more progressive sections of the country. 

' These figures are taken from the Graduate handbook for 1899, published by the 
Federation of graduate clubs. Of these the greatest number studying in any one 
institution in the west was to be found in the University of Chicago, and the next 
greatest in the University of California; the greatest number studying in any one 
institution in the east was to be found at Barnard-Columbia, and the next great- 
est at Bryn Mawr. There were studying in the graduate departments of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago (including summer students) 276 women; in the University of 
California, 90 ; in Barnard-Columbia, 82; in Bryn Mawr, 61; in Radcliffe-Harvard, 
58; in Yale, 42; in Cornell, 36; in the University of Pennsylvania, 34. The posi- 
tion of Bryn Mawr in this series seems to show conclusively that an independ- 
ent woman's college maintaining a sufficiently high standard of instruction may 
compete successfully for students with much larger and older coeducational 
foundations. 

* See Fellowships and graduate scholarships, published by the Association of 
collegiate alumnae, Richmond Hill, N. Y., Ill Series, No. 2, July, 1899. 



Comparative table of the progress of coeducation and increase of 
women students from i8go to i8g8 and i8gg in theology, law, 7nedi- 
cine, dentistry, pharmacy, schools of technology and agriculture. 



Theology 

Law 

Medicine (regular and irregular) 4. , 

Dentistry 

Pharmacy 

Schools of technology and agricul 
ture endowed with national land 
grants 



1890 ■ 



No women 

reported 

No women 

ported 

46 I 40 

13 

16 



46. 



1899- 



48 75- 



CU 



No women 

reported 
No women 
reported 
854 S-S 
53 »'0 
60 



' The numbers of coeducational and other professional schools are estimated from 
the U. S. ed. rep. for 1889-90. 

"Through the kindness of Mr. James Russell Parsons, Jr., author of the mono- 
graph on professional education in the United States, published as one of this 
series, I am able to insert the figures for 1899, see p. 21. By personal inquiry 
I have been able to add four to his list of coeducational schools of theology. 

'The number of professional students for the year 1898 is taken from the U. S. 
ed. rep. for 1897-98. 

*For the sake of clearness I have omitted from the above table the 7 separate 
medical schools for v/omen, although I have counted their students in the total 
number of women medical students, both in 1890 and 1898. In 1890 there were 
studying in the 6 regular medical women's colleges 425 women, as against 648 
women in coeducational regular medical colleges; in 1898 there were studying 
in them 411 women, as against 1045 in coeducational colleges, a decrease of 
3.3 per cent, whereas women students in coeducational medical colleges have 
increased 16.3 per cent. I limit the comparison to regular medical schools 
because women have increased relatively more rapidly in irregular medical 
schools and there is only one separate irregular medical school for women. It is 
sometimes said that women prefer medical sects because the proportion of women 
studying in irregular schools is relatively greater than the proportion studying in 
regular schools; but in 1898, 85.7 per cent of the irregular schools were coeduca- 
tional and only 46.6 per cent of regular schools, a fact which undoubtedly increases 
the proportion of students studying in irregular schools. 

^The statistics for the schools of technology and agriculture are taken from the 
U. S. education report for 1889-90, pp. 1053-1054, and from the report for 1897-98, 
pp. 1985-1988. I have excluded schools of technology not endowed with the 
national land grant. In 1890 there were 27 of such schools (5 of them coeduca- 
tional); in 1898 their number had fallen to 17 (3 of them coeducational). Very 
few women are studying in these schools; in 1898 women formed only 0.2 per 
cent of all students studying in them. 



35 I ] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 33 

Theology, law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary 
science, schools of technology and agriculture — Ten years ago 
there were very few women studying in any of these schools. 
The wonderful increase both in facilities for professional 
study and in the number of women students during the last 
eight years may be seen by referring to the comparative 
tive table on the opposite page. 

It is evident to the impartial observer that coeducation is to 
be the method in professional schools. Except in medicine, 
where women were at first excluded from coeducational study 
by the strongest prejudice that has ever been conquered in any 
movement, no important separate professional schools, indeed 
none whatever, except one unimportant school of pharmacy 
have been founded for women only.' It is evident also that 
the number of women entering upon professional study is 
increasing rapidly. If we compare the relative increase of 
men and of women from 1890 to 1898 we obtain the follow- 
ing percentages : increase of students in medicine, men, 
51. 1 per cent, women, 64.2 per cent ; in dentistry, men, 150.2 
per cent, women, 205.7 per cent ; in pharmacy, men, 25.9 per 
cent, women, 190 per cent; in technology and agriculture, 
men, 119.3 per cent, women, 194.7 per cent. 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 

There are many questions connected with the college edu- 
cation of American women which possess great interest 
for the student of social science. 

Number of college women — In the year 1897-98^ there 
were studying in the undergraduate and graduate depart- 
ments of coeducational colleges and universities 17,338 
women, and in the undergraduate and graduate depart- 
ments of independent and affiliated women's colleges, divis- 
ion A, 4,959 women, women forming thus 27.4 per cent of 

' A private law school for women existed for some years in the city of New York, 
founded by Madame Kempin, a graduate of the University of Zurich. At the 
request of the Women's legal education society it was incorporated with the New 
York University law school. 

'^See U. S. ed. rep. 1897-98, p. 1825, corrected according to note i, page 15 of this 
monograph. 

L.cfC, 



34 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [352 

the total number of graduate and undergraduate students. 
The 22 colleges belonging to the Association of collegiate 
alumnse, which are, on the whole, the most important colleges 
in the United States admitting women, have conferred the 
bachelor's degree on 12,804 women. If we add to these 
the graduates of the Women's college of Brown univer- 
sity, 102 in number, and the graduates of the 14 additional 
coeducational colleges included in my list of the 58 most 
important colleges in the United States, we obtain, including 
those graduating in June, 1899, a total of 14,824 women 
holding the bachelor's degree.' There is thus formed, even 
leaving out of account the graduates of the minor colleges, 
a larger body of educated women than is to be found in 
any other country in the world. These graduates have 
received the most strenuous college training obtainable by 
women in the United States, which does not differ materially 
from the best college training obtainable by American men 
(indeed, women graduates of coeducational colleges have 
received precisely the same training as men), and may fairly 
be compared with the women who have received college and 
university training abroad. In other countries women uni- 
versity graduates, or even women who have studied at 
universities, are very few ;^ in America, on the other hand, 

' The number of women graduates has been obtained in every case through the 
courtesy of the presidents of the colleges concerned. In some cases the women 
graduates have had to be selected from the total number of graduates and 
counted separately for the purpose. As the figures have never been printed 
before, I give them below: 22 colleges belonging to the Associatio7i of collegiate alumtice : — 
coeducational colleges: Boston, 522 graduates; California, 440; Chicago, 267; Cor- 
nell, 517; Kansas, 259; Leland Stanford, Jr., 289, Massachusetts institute tech- 
nology, 45; Michigan, 940; Minnesota, 458; Nebraska, 263 ; Northwestern, 317; 
Oberlin, 1,486; Syracuse, 508; Wesleyan, 118; Wisconsin, 620. Independent col- 
leges: Vassar, 1,509; Wellesley, 1,727; Smith, 1,679; Bryn Mawr, 321. Affiliated 
colleges: Radcliffe, 278; Barnard, 106; College for women of Western reserve, 135. 
Additional colleges, 15 in number: Women's college of Brown, 102; Cincinnati, 99; 
Columbian, 60; Colorado, about 70; Illinois, 131; Indiana, 282; Iowa, 340; Maine, 
28; Missouri, no record; Ohio State university, 150; Ohio Wesleyan, 615; Texas, 60 
Vanderbilt, 11; Washington (St. Louis), 55; West Virginia, 17. Total, 14,824 
women graduates. 

^ The number of women studying in universities in Germany in 1898-99 was 
approximately 471, probably mainly foreigners (statistics given in the Hochschul 
Nachrichten, Minerva, etc.); in France in 1896-97, approximately 410, of whom 83 



353] 



EDUCATION OF WOMEN 35 



the higher education of women has assumed the proportions 
of a national movement still in progress. We may perhaps 
be able to guide in some degree its future development, but 
it has passed the experimental stage and can no longer be 
opposed with any hope of success. Its results are to be 
reckoned with as facts. 

Health of college women ^ — Those who have come into con- 
tact with some of the many thousands of healthy normal 

were foreigners (Les Universitfis franjaises, by M. Louis Liard; vol. 2 of Special 
Reports on Educational Subjects, Education department, London, 1898) ; in 
England and Wales in 1897-98, approximately 2,348. (See catalogues of different 
colleges.) The total number of women graduates in England and Wales who have 
received degrees, or their equivalent, from English and Welsh universities is 
about 2,180. 

^Two statistical investigations of the health of college women have been under- 
taken; one in America in 1882, which tabulated various data connected with the 
health, occupation, marriage, birth rate, etc., of 705 graduates of the 12 American 
colleges belonging at that time to the Association of collegiate alumnae (Health 
statistics of women college graduates; report of a special committee of the Associ- 
ation of collegiate alumnae, Annie G. Howes, chairman; together with statistical 
tables collated by the Massachusetts bureau of statistics of labor. Boston: Wright 
and Potter Printing Co., 18 Post Office Square. 1885), and one in England in 
1887 (Health statistics of women students of Cambridge and Oxford and of their 
sisters, by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, Cambridge university press, 1890). The English 
statistics dealt with 566 women students (honor students who had taken tripos 
examinations and final honors, and women who had been in residence three, two 
and one year) of Newnham andOirton colleges, Cambridge, and of Lady Margaret 
and Somerville halls at Oxford. It was found that in England 75 per cent of the 
honor students were at the time of the investigation in excellent or good health. 
It was found that in America 78 per cent of the graduates were at the time of the 
investigation in good health and 5 per cent in fair health. In estimating the 
result of this investigation it is difficult to find a standard of comparison. There 
is no way of knowing what percentage of good health is to be expected in the 
case of the average woman who has not been to college. It is stated in the Ameri- 
can health investigation, page 10, that Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, while obtaining 
data for her monograph on the question of rest for women, found that of 246 
women only 56 -{- per cent were in good health. The American statistics were 
compared with the results obtained in an investigation of the condition of 1,032 
working women of Boston, made by the Massachusetts bureau of statistics of 
labor; the comparison showed that the health of college women was more satis- 
factory than the health of working women. The English statistics were com- 
pared with the health statistics of 450 sisters or first cousins who had not received 
a college education, and it was found that, at all periods, about 5 per cent less of 
honor graduates were in bad health than of sisters and cousins. The compara- 
tive tables showed that the married graduates were healthier than their married 
sisters, that there were fewer childless marriages among them, that they had a 
larger proportion of children per year of married life, and that their children 
were healthier. 



36 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [354 

women studying in college at the present time, or who have 
had an opportunity to know something of the after-lives of 
even a small number of college women, believe that experi- 
ence has proved them to be, both in college, and after leav- 
ing college, on the whole, in better physical condition than 
other women of the same age and social condition. Since, 
however, people who have not the opportunity of knowledge 
at first hand continue to regard the health of college women 
as a subject open for discussion, a new health investigation, 
based on questions sent to the 12,804 graduates of ^^^ 22 
colleges belonging to the Association of collegiate alumnae, is 
now in progress. The statistical tables will be collated a 
second time by the Massachusetts bureau of statistics of 
labor and sent to the Paris exposition as part of the educa- 
tional exhibit of the Association of collegiate alumnae.' 

Marriage rate of college women — Here again no positive 
conclusions can be reached until we know what is the usual 
marriage rate of women belonging to the social class of 
women graduates. Everything indicates that the time of 
marriage is becoming later in the professional classes and 
that the marriage rate as a whole is decreasing. An inves- 
tigation undertaken simultaneously with the new health 
investigation by the Association of collegiate alumnae will 
enable us to speak with certainty in regard to the marriage 
rate of a large number of college women and their sisters.* 

' The health, marriage rate, birth rate, etc., of woman graduates will be com- 
pared in every case with the corresponding statistics for the women relatives 
nearest in age who have not received a college education; an attempt will also be 
made to obtain corresponding statistics for the nearest men relatives who are 
college graduates. 

^ The health investigation of English women students showed that the average 
age of marriage for students was 26.70 as against 25.53 for sisters, and that 10.25 
per cent of the students were married and I9.33 per cent of the sisters, or, omit- 
ting the students who had just left college when the returns were sent in, about 
12 per cent of students. The rate of marriage of students after their college 
course was completed and of their sisters seemed to be the same, the difference in 
the total number of marriages being apparently accounted for by causes existing 
before the termination of the college course, " possibly the desire to go to college, 
or to remain in college may be among them, but having been in college is not one 
of them." (See summary of results by Mrs. Sidgwick, page 59.) Mrs. Sidgwick 
concludes as a result of the investigation that not more than one-half of English 



Marriage rate of college women 




Percentage o£ 
graduates 
married 



Vassar 

Kansas 

Minnesota 

Cornell 

Syracuse 

Wesleyan 

Nebraska 

Boston 

Wellesley 

Smith 

Radcliffe 

Bryn Mawr 

Barnard 

Leland Stanford Junior. 
Chicago 



35-1 
31-3 
24.5 

310 



It will be seen that independent, affiliated and coeducational colleges fall 
into their proper place in the series, thus showing conclusively that the method 
of obtaining a college education exercises scarcely any appreciable influence on 
the marriage rate. 

The marriage rate of Bryn Mawr college, calculated in January, 1900, will also 
serve as an illustration of the importance of time in every consideration of the 
marriage rate : graduates of the class of 1889, married, 40.7 per cent; graduates of 
the first two classes, 1889-1890, married, 40.0 per cent; graduates of the first three 
classes, 1889-1891, married, 33.3 per cent; graduates of the first four classes, 1889- 
1892, married, 32.9 per cent; graduates of the first five classes, 1889-1893, married, 
31.0 per cent; graduates of the first six classes, 1889-1894, married, 30.0 per cent; 
graduates of the first seven classes, 1889-1895, married, 25.2 per cent; graduates 
of the first eight classes, 1889-1896, married, 22.8 per cent; graduates of the first 
nine classes, 1889-1897, married, 20.9 per cent; graduates of the first ten classes, 
1889-1898, married, 17.2 per cent; graduates of the first eleven classes, 1889-1899, 
married, 15.2 per cent. 



355] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 37 

It must be borne in mind that the element of time is 
very important, and in the case of women the later and 
therefore younger classes are all larger than the earlier 
ones, see table on opposite page). 

Occupations of college women — It is probable that about 
50 per cent of women graduates teach for at least a cer- 
tain number of years. Of the 705 women graduates whose 
occupations were reported in the Association of collegiate 
alumnse investigation of 1883 50.2 percent were then teach- 
ing. In 1895 of 1,082 graduates of Vassar 37.7 per cent 
were teaching ; 2.0 per cent were engaged in graduate study 
and 3.0 per cent were physicians or studying medicine. In 
1898 of 171 graduates (all living) of Radcliffe college, includ- 
ing the class of 1898, 49.7 per cent were teaching; 8.7 per 
cent were engaged in graduate study ; .6 per cent were 
studying medicine ; 17.5 per cent were unmarried and with- 
out professional occupation. In 1899 of 316 living gradu- 
ates of Bryn Mawr college, including the class of 1899, 39.0 
percent were teaching; 11.4 were engaged in graduate 
study ; 6 per cent were engaged in executive work (includ- 
ing 4 deans of colleges, 3 mistresses of college halls of 
residence) ; 1.6 per cent were studying or practising medi- 
cine, and 26.6 per cent were unmarried and without profes- 
sional occupation.^ 

Coeducation vs. separate education — It is clear that coedu- 
cation is the prevailing method in the United States; it is 
the most economical method ; indeed it is the only possible 

women of the social class of women students or their sisters marry. The Ameri- 
can investigation of 1883 showed that 27.8 per cent of the American college gradu- 
ates, their average age being 28 1-2 years, were at that time married, and that, 
judging by the indications of the marriage percentages among older graduates, 
about 50 per cent were likely sooner or later to be married. In an investigation 
of the marriage of Vassar graduates made in 1895, and not including the graduates 
of that year, it was found that rather under 38 per cent of the whole number of 
students, and about 63 per cent of the first four classes, were married, see 
Frances M. Abbott: A Generation of college women. The Forum, vol. XX, p. 378. 
Out of the total number of 8,956 graduates, including those graduating in June, 
1899, of the 16 colleges belonging to the Association of collegiate alumnse that 
have kept accurate marriage statistics, 2,059 ^^^ married, or 23.0 per cent. 

^ Mrs. Sidgwick's investigation showed that 77 per cent of all English students 
reporting, and 83 per cent of honor students, had engaged in educational work. 



38 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [356 

method in most parts of the country. Now that it has been 
determined in America to send girls as well as boys to college, 
it becomes impossible to duplicate colleges for women in every 
part of this vast country. If, as is shown by the statistics 
given in the successive reports of the commissioner of edu- 
cation, men students in college are increasing faster far than 
the ratio of the population, and women college students 
are increasing faster still than men,' it will tax all our 
resources to make adequate provision for men and women 
in common. Only in thickly-settled parts of the country, 
where public sentiment is conservative enough to justify the 
initial outlay, have separate colleges for women been estab- 
lished, and these colleges, without exception, have been 
private foundations. Public opinion in the United States 
almost universally demands that universities supported by 
public taxation should provide for the college education of 
the women of the state in which they are situated. The 
separate colleges for women speaking generally are to be 
found almost exclusively in the narrow strip of colonial states 
lying along the Atlantic seaboard. The question is often 
asked, whether women prefer coeducation or separate educa- 
tion. It seems that in the east they as yet prefer separate 
education, and this preference is natural." College life as 

' Between 1890 and 1898 women undergraduate students have increased 111.8 
per cent, and men undergraduate students have increased 51.2 per cent. 

2 In the college departments of coeducational colleges the average number of 
women studying is 48.4, whereas in the college departments of independent women's 
colleges the average number of women studying is 331.91, and in affiliated col- 
leges 192.8. In 1897-98 II. 4 per cent of all the women studying in coeducational 
colleges obtained the bachelor's degree, whereas 13.4 per cent of all the women 
studying in independent women's colleges obtained the bachelor's degree, which 
indicates probably that women prefer women's colleges for four years of resi- 
dence. In the same year 13.3 per cent of all men undergraduate students obtained 
the bachelor's degree. The average number of graduates of the 4 women's col- 
leges belonging to the Association of collegiate alumnae is 1,309 per college, the 
average age of the colleges being 23 years; the average number of graduates of 
the 15 coeducational colleges belonging to the Association of college alumnse is 
only 469.9, although the average age of the colleges is 27.7 years. During the 8 
years from 1890 to 1898, women undergraduate students have increased in coedu- 
cational colleges 105.4 per cent, whereas they have increased in women's colleges, 
division A, 138.4 per cent. Precisely the reverse is true of men students (see 
pp. 14 and 15, including foot notes). 



357] EDUCATION OF WOMEN 39 

it is organized in a woman's college seems to conservative 
parents less exposed, more in accordance with inherited tradi- 
tions. Consequently, girls who in their own homes lead 
guarded lives, are to be found rather in women's colleges 
than in coeducational colleges. From the point of view of 
conservative parents, there is undoubtedly serious objection 
to intimate association at the most impressionable period of 
a girl's life with many young men from all parts of the country 
and of every possible social class. From every point of view 
it is undesirable to have the problems of love and marriage 
presented for decision to a young girl during the four years 
when she ought to devote her energies to profiting by the 
only systematic intellectual training she is likely to receive 
during her life. Then, too, for the present, much of the cul- 
ture and many of the priceless associations of college life are 
to be obtained, whether for men or women, only by residence 
in college halls, and no coeducational, or even affiliated, col- 
leges have as yet organized for their students such a com- 
plete college life as the independent woman's college. So 
long as this preference, and the grounds for it, exist, we must 
see to it that separate colleges for women are no less good 
than colleges for men. In professional schools, including the 
graduate school of the faculty of philosophy, coeducation is 
even at present almost the only method. There are in the 
United States only 4 true graduate schools for men closed 
to women, and only i independent graduate school main- 
tained for women offering three years' consecutive work 
leading to the degree of Ph. D. There is every reason to 
believe that as soon as large numbers of women wish to 
enter upon the study of theology, law and medicine, all the 
professional schools now existing will become coeducational. 
A modified vs. an unmodified curriculum — The progress of 
women's education, as we have traced it briefly from its 
beginning in the coeducational college of Oberlin in 1833, 
and the independent woman's college of Vassar in 1865, has 
been a progress in accordance with the best academic tradi- 
tions. of men's education. In 1870 we could not have pre- 



40 EDUCATION OF WOMEN [358 

dieted the course to be taken by the higher education of 
women ; the separate colleges for women might have devel- 
oped into something wholly different from what we had been 
familiar with so long in the separate colleges for men. A 
female course in coeducational colleges in which music and 
art were substituted for mathematics and Greek might have 
met the needs of the women students. After thirty years 
of experience, however, we are prepared to say that what- 
ever changes may be made in future in the college curriculum 
will be made for men and women alike. After all, women 
themselves must be permitted to be the judges of what kind 
of intellectual discipline they find most truly serviceable. 
They seem to have made up their minds, and hereafter may 
be trusted to see to it that an inferior education shall not 
be offered to them in women's colleges, or elsewhere, under 
the name of a modified curriculum. 



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